Roberto Soldado marked his Tottenham Hotspur league debut with the only goal of the game at promoted Crystal Palace today while Jose Mourinho made a winning return as Chelsea manager with a 2-0 win at home to promoted Hull City.
With everyone’s attention focused on when Gareth Bale will join Real Madrid in a world-record transfer, Spurs have been quietly adding some quality pieces to a side that finished fifth last season in the Premier League.
One of those signings was Soldado, who cost £26m signing from Valencia, and he did not disappoint on his Spurs debut, scoring from a second-half penalty after Aaron Lennon’s cross was handled by full-back Dean Moxey.
This was not an easy win by Spurs and Ian Holloway’s side battled hard all day, and they could have even snatched a point at the end but Kagisho Dikgacoi fired straight at Hugo Lloris.
Over at Stamford Bridge it was the Jose Mourinho love in, as the former Chelsea manager returned to the Blues dugout for the first time since 2007.
Chelsea almost gave Mourinho a dream start when Hull goalkeeper Allan McGregor brought down Fernando Torres in the area after only six minutes, but the Hull keeper redeemed himself when he saved Frank Lampard’s penalty.
But it was one-way traffic in the opening 25 minutes and it was no surprise when Oscar combined neatly with Kevin De Bruyne and prodded in.
Lampard did finally get on the scoresheet later in the half when his free kick from 30 yards swerved beyond the fingertips of McGregor.
We even had our first use of goal-line technology of the opening weekend, when Hawk-Eye replays showed that McGregor had clawed Ivanovic’s header away from right on the line.
In the second half, Chelsea mindful that they have a midweek game against Aston Villa, took their foot of the pedal and let Hull get back into the game. Still Chelsea were by far the better side and ran out comfortable 2-0 winners.
